Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1887-12-22

Garrett p. Serviss' Lecture Before the
Brooklyn Chautauquans.
With the aid OF the stereopticon the
lecturer took his audience upon an ex-
cursion into the creations Of space and
showed them some of the marvels TO be
found within the ken of the telescope.
1t was bird's-eye view, but no "per-
sonally conducted" party of tourists
ever saw so many wonders in so short
space OF time.
The first station upon this solar Jour-
ney was the sun, and as it was approached
Mr.. Seryiss attempted to give his fell
low-trevelers some adequate idea of
how big the sun is. The earth's mass,
said the guide. weighs six sextillion tons,
How big is sextillion? Well, if O
man were to stand on the torch balcony
of Bartholdi's etatue and throw $40 gold
pieces into the bay at the rate of one
every second, it would take him thous-
ands upon thousands of years to get
rid of six sextillion dollars. Wall
street might afford quicker method of
getting rid OF fortune, but not much.
LII the sun were put in the balance il
would require $4,000 earths, each
weighing six sextillion tons, to tip the
beam. 1t may be safely concluded,
therefore, that the sun is pretty big
thing. The power of his attraction was
next measured, and it was illustrated
by Mr.. Serviss in this way: The earth
moves through space at the rate of
nineteen miles per second. A cannon
ball will only travel one mile while the
earth is travelling eighty miles. 1t is the
power of the suns attraction which
holds this whirling sphere in its orbit.
1t has been estimated that were the
suns attraction to cease suddenly, il
would require bar of the finest steel
1000 miles thick to hold it in its orbit.
The suns attraction, however, is more
powerful than steel rod of that size
would be. It holds all the planets OF
our system in their places. It goes
further than that and reaches out in
the depths OF space beyond our system,
and acts upon other suns and is acted
upon by them. 1t collars vagrant
comet and drags it within its kingdom,
and, after compelling it to do homage
at its feet, sends the visitor off again
into the realms of space; but when the
wanderer is 10000, 900, COO miles be-
yond our systems boundaries, the bride
of the sun is still upon its neck and his
masterful hand restraints its wander
ings.
Mr.. Serviss next took up the subject |
of sun spots, and gave very interest
ing account of these phenomena. he |
explained how vast upleaping masses
Of matter break from the suns mass,
tearing holes in the suns envelope, into |
which a dozen worlds could drop like |
billiard balls into a corner pocket. Pic
lures were also given of the appear
ance of the sun at the time of a total
eclipse. Other views showed the red
flames of burning hydrogen, leaping up
thousands upon thousands OF miles
above the suns surface. The relation
Of sun spots to electric storms in our
atmosphere was also indicated. Com
DTS were the next thing considered.
These Marco Polos of the universe, as
the lecturer called them, came wander
ing in from the realms of space like
from other systems, to do
homage to the sun. 1t is not until they
come within the range of the suns
more powerful influence that the fam
ng tails begin to appear. The comet
circles round the sun always with the
all turned away from the orb, and re-
reats from the sun still with the
treamers turned away, like o suppliant
packing out of the presence of king.
he extgame .tennity of comets' mass
hows that they are composed OF the
limsiest solar materials. 1t was pointed
nut how the phenomena of meteors are
with comets. Mr.. Serviss, as
became an adventurous sky pilot, took
lis travelling party still further afield,
nd showed them that Sirius, the brill
ant dog star, is sun from 800 to 1000
ines larger than our king of day,
rowing that the great lord of our solar
ystem is petty chieftain of small
Ian when compared with many of the
of the starry realms. Even
he great Sirius is small beer of fell
DIV by the side of some of his COM
GERS. -BroOkly1l Eagle.